Hero Worship: Can the Avengers Assemble Comic Readers?

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The Avengers can't save comics, but they can certainly help.

By Joey Esposito

This is the last Hero Worship column that will exist in a pre-Avengers world. From here on out, superhero movies are irrevocably changed, for better or worse. Can we go back to "just" origin stories? Single-character movies without the scope of something like Avengers? Surely they will continue to exist but will we, as fans, ever be able to go back to the norm? Like Gordon monologues in Batman Begins… "escalation." Will the stakes be raised so high by one side that the other side has no choice but take it one step even further?

But while Hollywood will surely be left satisfied to the brim after seeing the box office returns of Marvel's The Avengers, what about the comic book industry? I've talked ad nauseum about the steps that the comic book industry needs to take to be strategic about the higher-than-ever popularity of their A-list characters in the movies. Yet, we've yet to see any real progress on the behalf of the comic book companies. And no, aligning your comic book universe to match up with the movie universe isn't what I'm talking about.

The awareness of comics in general needs to be heightened – Marvel in particular has become so complacent and accepting of the fact that the world at large is aware of comic books because of their success in cinema. But that's not true. The world at large is aware of the characters; very, very different.

Marvel does a better job than most to reach beyond their core fans; you see interviews with famous Marvel fans all the time on Marvel.com. But at the end of the day, most of the people reading that piece are those already keeping up with comics on a weekly or daily basis, reaffirming that their love of comics is sound. This sort of celebrity involvement is a prime chance to reach out to a new fan base – fans of the celebrity in question that could potentially be led to something new and different. Yet, these articles are promoted merely to the "in crowd" and hardly ever get any external pickup.

The point is, it's becoming increasingly obvious that the major publishers seem to be content to sell to the core fanbase with only a limited outreach to new potential readers while they mull over a better long term game. Yeah, keeping your comic characters in line with the movies, having comics starring the movie cast, basing comics on new cartoons is all well and good… if people know where to find them. These comics advertise Marvel's great digital apps, but that requires possession of said comic for a newbie to be aware of it, unless they fumble across it while exploring the App Store.

The Avengers opens on May 4 in the US. Coincidentally, Free Comic Book Day is Saturday, May 5. If you don't know what FCBD is, it's rather awesome. Participating retailers across the country give away certain comics (find this year's list here) to customers, just for coming to the store. Better yet, many stores have sales, signings, or other events to coincide with FCBD to make it an all-purpose celebration of comics. In short, it's a chance to show new readers what the comic book community is at its best.

But with the publishers content with marketing comics how they are, it's time for the foot soldiers of the comic book industry – the fans and the retailers – to take matters into their own hands. IGN Comics review crew member Benjamin Bailey tweeted this the other day:

Guess what? He's absolutely right. Look, publishers are going to continue to market their product to the same people over and over and over again until it sinks them right into the ground or another solution magically appears. And if the publishers run the product into the ground by catering to an ever dwindling core of fans, then it's up to the rest of us to do what we can to help right the ship.

Retailers in particular need to take advantage of The Avengers release – especially considering it's so close to FCBD – and do what they can in a local capacity. Establish a relationship with your local movie theater; perhaps offer moviegoers a discount on comics with the presentation of their ticket stub. Give them incentive to go to your store over, say, Amazon.

And once they're in your store, hook them with the community feeling that your store should have. If they have questions, answer them with knowledge and excitement. You think if they asked for a book in a chain like Barnes & Noble the employee would question their taste? Absolutely not, yet I get reports of it happening nationwide in comic book retailers. If you shun new customers, you lose all right to complain about dwindling sales.

Position your sales or signing events around these tent pole movie releases and have a representative of the store at the theater advertising it. FCBD is a happy coincidence, but there's no reason retailers can't create their own events around the other big comic book movies. One store near my house, Collector's Paradise, is doing Free Comic Book May, offering differing varieties of events throughout the whole month. The time of unlocking the doors of a comic shop and waiting for people to come are long gone; it's time retailers bring the comics to the public.

The Avengers are assembling on screen and kicking off a whole new era of superhero movies while the very medium that spawned their creation sits and continues to struggle in sales and relevancy. The Avengers themselves aren't going to save comics, but their presence sure as hell doesn't hurt. Let's make the best of it.

Is your local comic book shop doing anything special around The Avengers? Do they participate in Free Comic Book Day? What would you like to see them do to bring more people to comics? Sound off in the comments below or tell me on Twitter!

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter, or find him on IGN. He will love Star Wars until the end of his days.